In another major step towards modernization, around 50% of the urban co-operative banks (UCBs) in the state are likely to introduce net banking and mobile banking facilities for their account holders and members by the end of this year.

Speaking on the sidelines of Urban Co-operative Banking Summit 2016 here on Sunday, Jyotindra Mehta, chairman of Gujarat UCBs Federation (GUCBF) said that the time has come for these co-operative banks to go for real technology upgradation.

“All the UCBs are already connected with core banking solutions (CBS). Now it is time to go for next step and provide facilities such as net banking and mobile banking. Among all the 235 UCBs, 50% of them are unit banks, meaning they have one or maximum two branches. So we are targeting the other 50% for implementation of these facilities. We are in talks with all the banks for the implementation,” said Mehta who is also president of The National Federation of Urban Cooperative Banks and Credit Societies Ltd. (NAFCUB).

There are 18 district co-operative banks (DCBs) and 235 UCBs in the state with over 1.5 crore customers. Over 28 lakh farmers are also involved with credit societies in the state.

The co-operative banks in the state have Rs 40,000 crore in deposits and Rs 30,000 crore in advances.

The UCBs alone have deposits worth Rs 36,600 crore and advances to the tune of Rs 23,000 crore. The UCBs have 91 lakh account holders, 30 lakh members and six lakh borrowers.

The co-operative banks had already began issuing RuPay debit cards and last year Ahmedabad District Co-operative Bank (ADC Bank) had also initiated the process of issuing credit card. Some of the DCBs have already introduced internet banking.

The daylong Urban Co-operative Banking Summit 2016 saw participation of over 500 delegates. The summit brought together cooperative banking department of Gujarat along with top IT players in the country under one platform to accelerate the adoption of high end technology in the sector.

Panel discussions also included the importance of leveraging technology in the sector and elevating the position of UCBs by relying on cyber security and risk management technologies. The summit was also attended by one of the top names in IT sectors.